---
title: Improvement Era
description: Monthly periodical of the Mormon church, 1897 onward. This library holds the issues of November 1897 to December 1930.
authors:
  - Wootton, A.
collections:
  - periodicals
tags:
  - magazine
  - improvement-era
periodical: Improvement Era
volume: 2
number: 4
published: 1899-02
publisher: Young Men’s Mutual Improvement Associations
publisher_place: Salt Lake City
language: en
type: magazine
reference: 'Wootton, A., "Habits," *Improvement Era* 2, no. 4 (February 1899): 280.'
source:
  url: https://archive.org/details/improvementera24unse
  transcription: Transcribed from the Internet Archive scan of each issue (the item for each issue is named in the issue's own source); unnumbered advertising leaves are omitted, printed page numbers are kept as page markers.
  identifier: improvementera24unse
start_page: 280
end_page: 280
rights:
  status: public-domain
  basis: US publication 1930 or earlier (published 1899-02)
  source: https://archive.org/details/improvementera24unse
  publication_year: 1899
  note: The Internet Archive item metadata carries a blanket "© Copyright by Intellectual Reserve, Inc." notice. The library owner judged it inapplicable because this issue was published in 1899, before 1931; a scan-level notice does not restore copyright.
---

# Habits

<!-- page:280 -->

HABITS.
A. WOOTTON.
The tendency of habits of action as well as of thought to
repeat themselves uncounsciously should teach the necessity of
forming only such habits as we would be willing to have repeated
anywhere, in any company and in the broad light of day.
No habit of speech or action should be indulged in at home
that would bring chagrin if repeated abroad; and that which is
done in the dark should be of such a character that unconscious
repetition in the daylight or before the world would not bring a
blush of shame to the cheek.
Building habits is virtually character building, and character
is something as lasting as eternity, so that negligence in the smaller
details will seriously mar the beautiful whole, as the slightest daub
on a masterpiece of art would seriously detract from its beauty and
reduce its market value to a minimum.
A blemish on a beautiful picture tends to mar its beauty in
direct proportion to the artistic perfection displayed in the picture
as a whole; so also the slightest deformity appears more conspicuous as the character approaches the highest ideal.